The Topsail Times

Good afternoon, Topsail families.

We’re excited to share this week’s edition of the Topsail Times with you! Inside, you’ll find important news, reminders, and celebrations to help you stay connected to all that’s happening at TMS. As we begin the month of October, we look forward to all the learning, activities, and opportunities it will bring. We can’t wait to start another great week together and welcome our students back on campus Monday morning!

Important Dates This Week:

• 10/6-10/10: Mental Health Awareness Week
• 10/6: National Coaches Day
• 10/6: 5th Grade MCLASS BOY
• 10/6: TMS Softball @ BMS/WPMS
• 10/7: Sports Pictures: Football, Softball, & Cheer
• 10/8: TMS Football @ CFMS
• 10/8: National Stop Bullying Day
• 10/9: TMS Softball @ CFMS

7TH GRADE NEWSLETTER

8TH GRADE NEWSLETTER

ENCORE NEWSLETTER

National School Lunch Week is Here!

Our nutrition provider, Aramark has crafted menus during this week inspired by our "Taste the World" theme. Additionally, breakfast and lunch will be free to all students this week. This is a great opportunity for students to enjoy a meal in our cafeteria!

Please click on the link below for this October's lunch menu.

Middle School Lunch Menu - October

It's that time of year again for our Annual Fine Arts Halloween Spooktacular! This is a free, family friendly event at Topsail High that includes Trunk or Treating, Crafts/Activities, Food Trucks, and concert performances by the Topsail Middle, Surf City Middle and Topsail High School bands. All are welcomed to attend this amazing event on October 30th from 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

• Reservations are open for this year’s “paint the rock”. Please sign up to reserve your date or dates now using the sign up below! Scan the QR code below to make your payment. Other payment options coming soon.
• https://signup.com/mobileweb/2.0/vspot.html?activitykey=351517720099#choose_event_page
• Spiritwear is on sale now! T-shirts are stocked and delivered to your students classroom weekly. We have now closed the pre-orders for the TMS hoodies. Please note the deadline to order and the expected delivery date on the order form HERE.

• TMS Annual Color Run is kicking off soon! Our website is open for registration and pledging NOW!!! Go to mybooster.com to register your student today. Every $30 donation earns one ticket to be used in our upcoming raffles. There are prizes for student with the most pledges overall, class with the greatest percentage of students registered, grade level with the most pledges and more! Our official kick off is October 13th with the run taking place on Friday October 24th. Volunteers are needed. Please CLICK THIS LINK and help if you can!

• Please consider joining PTO this year! TMS PTO strive to support every student and staff member throughout the year! Your membership is important! CLICK HERE to join today!

In an effort to provide more opportunities to hear from our community, the Parent Advisory Committee met for the first time this past week. The purpose of this committee is to give parents an opportunity to bring thoughts and ideas about how to make TMS better directly to the administrative team. Several parents have volunteered to meet with administration each month to discuss how to make TMS better. They have asked that if anyone has any thoughts or ideas about how to make TMS better, they can reach out to one of the PAC members and they will make sure that it is discussed at the next meeting. Below are listed the parents that have agreed to volunteer their time:

Summer-Rain Bussard (summer.rain@icloud.com)- Special Education

Shannon Moore" (sm33339@gmail.com)- 5th grade
Laura Grones (laura@elitemarketingmedia.com)- 6th grade
Nikki Cantu (nikkigard@yahoo.com)- 7th grade

Tracy Williams (williamstracyk@gmail.com)- 7th grade
Jennifer Smith (jsmith226@yahoo.com)- 7th/8th grade
Melissa Cedeno (mcedeno24@gmail.com)- 8th grade

PAC meets on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 8:30am. We will post the meeting minutes after each meeting. Here are the minutes from the meeting on 9.24.25. If you have any questions or concerns you would like reviewed at the next PAC meeting, please reach out to one of the representatives and they will get it added to the agenda for the next meeting.

Join us in reaching ONE MILLION MINUTES reading by the end of the school year.

1. Read anytime, anywhere out of school
2. Keep track of your minutes and contribute to the school and district total
3. Every minute matters - together we can meet our goal

Reading builds knowledge, imagination, and lifelong learning skills. By working together, Pender County Schools will reach this incredible goal. Let’s grow our love for reading — one page at a time!

Tracking form will be provided by the school.

October 1 - May 31

Operation Military Kids Club meets this Friday after school in room 601 until 4:45. We hope to see you there!

Topsail Middle School would like to remind our families and students of a few important reminders:

• Sick/late notes must be received within 3 days of absence/tardy.
• Our final check out time at TMS is 3pm.
• Please, no outside food/drink in cafeteria, and only water bottles in classrooms (i.e.: no Starbucks, Dunkin drinks, fast food drinks, etc.).
• To parents who are dropping off their students in the parking lot in the morning, please do not let your child out of the car before the bell at 8:10am. We do not have staff out there before that time and several parents have been dropping off before the bell, which is causing a major safety issue.

We want to be able to showcase some of the great things our students are doing on our website and social media accounts, if you would NOT like your student to be in any of these photos, please fill out this form. This form will be open to complete until Monday, October 6th.

At Topsail Middle School, we offer a confidential program called MUNCH (Meals Until No Child Hungers).

In this program, a backpack/gym bag of food is sent home with the child each week on Friday.

CLICK HERE if you would like to participate!

Please remind your children that they may only use their own lunch accounts. They are not permitted to use accounts belonging to siblings, relatives, or friends. Unfortunately, we have had to turn several students away this week because of this issue.

Thank you for your support and for helping us ensure a smooth lunch process for our students!

TMS continues to work closely with transportation to improve our morning and afternoon bus schedules. While progress is being made, please be aware that delays may still occur. Moving forward, we will not send out general announcements about late buses unless there is a specific incident that requires immediate attention.

At this time, families should plan for buses to run approximately 15–30 minutes behind schedule each day. For the most accurate updates, please continue to use the Here Comes the Bus app for real-time locations and notifications.

Thank you for your patience, understanding, and flexibility as we work to make our routes more efficient.

We have a few important systems that will help our school year run smoothly. Please take a moment to make sure you have access to each one:

Infinite Campus

• What it does: Lets you view your child’s grades and attendance, and submit excuse notes.
• Step 1: Get your student’s activation code here: Lookup Activation Code
• Step 2: Use your code to create your account here: Infinite Campus Login
• WE ARE ALSO IN S DISTRICT COMPETITION TO HAVE THE MOST FAMILIES SIGN UP, SO PLEASE HELP TMS WIN!

Here Comes the Bus

• What it does: Allows you to see your child’s bus location, receive alerts when the bus is near, and have peace of mind about arrival times.
• What you need: Your child’s Student ID number
  • If you do not know it, email jeremy_mortensen@pernder.k12.nc.us and he will send it to you.
• District Code: 29081
• Sign Up Here: Here Comes the Bus

Rooms

• What it does: Our county-wide communication system for messaging between teachers and parents.
• Set up your account here: Rooms Information

Thank you for taking the time to set up these systems. Having access will make communication and daily routines much smoother for you and your child! We greatly appreciate the tremendous partnership we have with our TMS families!